FEATURE
FEATURE
WHAT
IS
Y
ou see, eLearning is any
instruction that takes place
on a digital device. Sitting
down to do that 90 minute
online GDPR course that everyone
on your team is being made to do?
That’s eLearning. Listening to your
favourite podcast on your way into
work detailing how something is
made? That’s eLearning. Watching a
2 minute video on YouTube showing
you how to boil an egg? You guessed it,
that’s eLearning.
by Amy Martin,
eLearning Specialist,
The Insurance Institute
26
That’s a great question! A quick Google will bring up
hundreds of definitions of what eLearning is, and what
eLearning is not. But ask yourself, what do you think
eLearning is? If your boss told you that you were being put
forward to do an eLearning course, what do you think of?
Reading a PDF manual?
A live-streamed lecture?
A podcast?
A 2 minute explainer video?
A short tutorial on an app on your smartphone?
A 2 hour interactive course you complete
on your computer?
The answer is all of the above.
eLearning uses different types of media (text, audio, video,
pictures) to deliver information to you, the learner. This
information is relevant to whatever the learning objectives
for that particular course are.
BACKGROUND
While technology is continuing to evolve at a rapid pace,
eLearning is not a new thing; in fact, it’s been around as
early as the 1920s!
The 1960s then saw the introduction of computer-
based training, which eventually became common in
higher education by the 1980s. It was in the 90s, with
the introduction of the World Wide Web, which made
computer-based, or web-based, training more accessible
to students anywhere they had an internet connection.
We still use the internet to access eLearning today, but
how we access it has changed. As the internet improved
Issue 7 • September 2018 • The Insider
Issue 7 • September 2018 • The Insider
27